Thoughts on Thursday’s runners

Two runners today for the yard. Raimunda makes the journey up to Haydock to run in the 4.30pm with Jason Hart. Helm Rock heads to Sandown where he lines up in the 8.12pm under William Buick.

Raimunda

Raimunda made a nice debut at Haydock a couple of weeks ago and should have learned from that experience. She steps up two furlongs which might bring about a bit more improvement.

Raimunda

The race looks difficult to gauge with three well bred newcomers, Al Asifah, Ginza & Flammable. They are taking on Chealamy and Anjo Bonita. They have both shown solid form that indicates they are up to winning a maiden, but are vulnerable to smarter types.

Raimunda runs in the colours of owner and breeders Gary & Lesley Middlebrook. She will be led up by Sammy Barnett who rides and cares for her daily at home.

Helm Rock

Helm Rock ran a really good race to be third last time out at Ascot and comes here in good form. He’s run well at the track in the past and should put up a solid effort again. He wouldn’t want the ground really fast. Sandown is normally well watered to produce a good racing surface so he should be fine.

Sandown is a really well run track and a great evening’s racing today. Just one small observation is that they are using half hour gaps between races. This just doesn’t work well at a track where the stables, weighing room and parade ring and entrance to the track are all far apart. Notwithstanding the fact there are some seriously high quality races on the card and winning connections are often required to give a fair amount of time between races doing interviews. On a day when British Racing is announcing grand strategies to make things better, it is worth remembering there are so many small things that can be done easily to improve the “product”.

Helm Rock

Rant over! Focussing on what looks a really interesting handicap, Assessment was a short favourite for a high class contest at York last week. Sadly he got loose. He looked a good winner on his previous start open to further improvement as a lightly raced four year old. Yaanaas is even less experienced and just beat Helm Rock last time out, having accounted for Quantico by a small margin in a novice race the time before. Both of those are still likely to improve. Whilst Aerion Power, Light and Dark and Azano all have solid form at this level.

Helm Rock runs for owners Capture The Moment VII and will be led up by James Pulley who cares for him daily at home.